A demand for high-speed optical transceiver devices has been increased to provide large-capacity communications. An optical transceiver device includes, for example, an optical modulator that generates an optical signal, a driver circuit that drives the optical modulator in accordance with a data signal, an optical reception circuit that converts a received optical signal into an electric signal, and a TIA (transimpedance amplifier) circuit that converts the electric signal (current signal) output from the optical reception circuit into a voltage signal.
In many cases, an optical transceiver device is implemented in an optical module together with a light source. A demand for reducing the size of optical modules has been increased. Thus, a demand for reducing the size of optical transceiver devices to be implemented in optical modules has also been increased.
FIG. 1A illustrates an example of an optical module. The optical module includes, for example, a light source and a digital signal processor in addition to an optical transceiver device. Optical access corresponds to an interface to be connected to an optical network. Electrical access corresponds to an electrical interface to be connected to an information processing device.
An optical module is used in, for example, communication equipment for connecting many information processing devices to an optical network. In this case, many optical modules may be implemented in the communication equipment, and each of the optical modules needs to have a narrow width W1.
FIG. 1B illustrates an example of an optical transceiver device. An optical transceiver device 100 includes an optical circuit area 110, a driver circuit 120, and a TIA circuit 130. An optical integrated circuit is implemented in the optical circuit area 110. The optical integrated circuit includes an optical modulator that generates a modulated optical signal and an optical reception circuit that converts a received optical signal into an electric signal. The driver circuit 120 drives the optical modulator in accordance with a data signal supplied via an electrical interface. The TIA circuit 130 converts an electric signal (current signal) output from the optical reception circuit into a voltage signal. In addition, a peripheral circuit (e.g., an electrical component such as a capacitor) electrically coupled to the driver circuit 120 is implemented in the vicinity of the driver circuit 120, and a peripheral circuit (e.g., an electrical component such as a capacitor) electrically coupled to the TIA circuit 130 is implemented in the vicinity of the TIA circuit 130. Note that “P” in FIG. 1B indicates a peripheral circuit. A terminal circuit terminates a driving signal supplied from the driver circuit 120 to the optical modulator.
As a related technique, Japanese Laid-open Patent Publication No. 2002-051015 describes a data-communication interface device that performs a full duplex communication. This interface device includes an optical transceiver and an electric-control/interface circuit. The optical transceiver includes a hybrid optical integrated circuit, an LD driver, and an optical amplifier for a photo detector. Other related techniques are described in Japanese Laid-open Patent Publication No. 2015-216169, U.S. Patent Publication No. 2017/0045697, and U.S. Pat. No. 9,651,751.
The optical transceiver device 100 depicted in FIG. 1B is implemented in, for example, the optical module depicted in FIG. 1A. In this case, in order to reduce the size of the optical module, the optical transceiver device 100 needs to have a narrow width W2 in FIG. 1B.